Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 04/06/2026 16:39:00

Hidden behind the famous Brera Pinacoteca in central Milan, the Orto Botanico di Brera is a small but historically important botanical garden tucked into the heart of one of the busiest districts of the city. Founded in 1774 under the reforms of the Austrian empress Maria Theresa, it was attached to the Jesuit and later imperial school that occupied the Palazzo Brera. The garden was originally created for the teaching of medical and pharmaceutical botany, with formal beds laid out for the systematic study of plants. After the suppression of the Jesuit order, the garden passed to the Imperial Schools and then, after the unification of Italy, to the University of Milan, which still owns and maintains it today. The five thousand square metres of grounds are arranged around a central avenue, with paired rectangular beds of medicinal and useful plants laid out in the traditional grid and a small pond at the centre. The relatively compact size makes the garden feel like a secret enclosed within the heavy walls of the surrounding palace. Two enormous Ginkgo biloba trees, planted at the end of the eighteenth century shortly after the species was first introduced to Europe from China, dominate the upper end of the garden. Their thick trunks and broad fan-shaped leaves are among the most photogenic features and turn a striking gold in autumn. The garden was severely damaged in the bombings of 1943 and underwent careful restoration after the war. Greenhouses, study rooms and small exhibition areas have been added in recent decades, and the institution runs a regular programme of guided tours, talks and events on subjects ranging from medicinal herbs to historic Lombard horticulture. Reached through a passage from the Pinacoteca courtyard or directly from Via Fratelli Gabba, the garden is free to enter and offers a quiet break from the busy streets of the Brera quarter, with its bookshops, antique dealers and art galleries, and remains one of the most unexpectedly tranquil spots in central Milan.